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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22480333">How do we fix things?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/marinesworld/pseuds/marinesworld'>marinesworld</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Grey's Anatomy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:41:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22480333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/marinesworld/pseuds/marinesworld</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Meredith can't stop about Andrew's text and doesn't know what to do. Meanwhile, Hayes has something to ask her. Inspired by the promo for tomorrow's episode (16x11)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Meredith Grey/Andrew DeLuca</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>How do we fix things?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi, everyone! This is my second story about Merluca so I hope you'll like it! Also, English is not my first language so please be indulgent. Enjoy reading! ;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two days. It had been two days since Meredith had received a text from Andrew and, honestly, that’s all she had been able to think about since. She didn’t know what to do. Should she ignore him? Should she accept his invitation and meet him to talk? Truth be said, she didn’t think she could ignore him otherwise she wouldn’t be thinking about it as much. Her heart was telling her to go and make things right between them, but her reason was afraid and telling her to just ignore his text and move on with her life. </p><p>Meredith was deep in her thoughts when she saw Dr. Hayes approaching her. </p><p>“Hello, Dr. Grey" Hayes said, smiling. </p><p>“Hi" </p><p>“Everything alright?”</p><p>“Of course, why would you ask me that?” Meredith answered, surprised by his question.</p><p>“I don’t know, you seemed a little off" </p><p>“Well, I wasn’t”</p><p>“Ok so...um... I actually wanted to ask you something” </p><p>“What?” Meredith was curious, even if she was pretty sure of what he was going to ask her.</p><p>“Would you like to go grab a coffee with me sometime?” </p><p>“Coffee? With you?” </p><p>“Yes, that’s what I said" Hayes answered chuckling. </p><p>“I don’t know, I’m really busy...” Meredith was at a loss of words, she didn’t know what to think.</p><p>“No. No excuses. Just say yes" </p><p>“Ok fine. One coffee but that’s it!” </p><p>“We’ll see about that” Hayes winked at her and left the room. </p><p>Meredith chuckled and turned around to go check on her patients. She had only taken a few steps when she saw him. Andrew was standing a few feet from her. God, she hoped he hadn’t heard the conversation between Hayes and her but, judging on his face, she was pretty sure he did. She looked at him for what felt like ages but was actually a few seconds and left. Boy, that was awkward. </p><p>**</p><p>A few hours later, Meredith arrived home. She was still thinking about that awkward moment with Andrew and told herself that this kind of situation only happens to her. Why would Andrew be standing outside the room at the very moment when she was talking to another man and agreeing to go out with him? Life is too complicated, she thought. <br/>Meredith hugged and kissed her children before sending them to bed. She stayed with them for a while, read them a story and came back downstairs. Maggie was there – well, she was always there since she had quit – so Meredith sat down on the couch with her sister.</p><p>“How are you?” Meredith asked Maggie, knowing she was in a bad state. </p><p>“Not great. But I do feel a little better since Andrew told me that the patient I operated on is alive. His heart started beating again, isn’t that amazing?" </p><p>Andrew. As soon as Maggie pronounced his name, Meredith couldn’t hear anything else. </p><p>“You saw Andrew?” </p><p>“Ok, so I’m going to pretend like you’re happy that my ex-patient is alive" </p><p>“Sorry, sorry. It’s just that... I can’t stop thinking about him these days. He sent me a text two days ago, asking me if we could talk and I don’t know what to do" Meredith said quietly. </p><p>“You know, when he came here to tell me the good news, he also talked about you”</p><p>“About me? What did he say?” Meredith asked her sister, surprised. </p><p>“He told me that he had screwed things up with you and he was afraid that asking you to take some time brought you two apart when he thought it would do the opposite. I think he was really sad, Mer" </p><p>“Well, he's the one who broke up with me" Meredith said, trying not to feel bad for him. </p><p>“He didn’t break up with you, he asked you to take some time" </p><p>“Well, the result is pretty much the same" </p><p>“You should talk to him" </p><p>“I don’t think I want to after what happened today...” </p><p>“What happened?” </p><p>“Well, Hayes, the new paediatrics guy, asked me out. For coffee. And I said yes. The problem is that, when I got out of the room, I saw Andrew standing next to the door and I’m pretty sure he heard everything” </p><p>“Why would you say yes to that guy?” Maggie asked her sister, shocked. </p><p>“I don’t know! He kind of begged me so I said yes!” </p><p>“Mer...” </p><p>“I know. I’ll cancel this thing, it was stupid anyway. I’m sorry but I’m tired, I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night" Meredith said, kissing her sister on the cheek. </p><p>“Good night, Mer" </p><p>Meredith went to bed, thinking about what her sister had just told her. Andrew regretted asking her to take some time. Did it mean that he still loved her? Did he still want to be with her? He seemed hurt when she had seen him this morning but, of course, he had tried to hide it. He didn’t want her to notice that seeing her with a new guy was too difficult for him. But she did. And now she felt bad for him. They needed to talk, they couldn’t stay like that forever. </p><p>**</p><p>The next morning, Meredith was walking in the hospital corridors when she spotted Andrew in one of the hospital room. The door was opened and she took it as a sign. Ok, it’s now or never, Meredith. She took a deep breath and started walking towards him. </p><p>“Andrew?” she said quietly. </p><p>Andrew turned around, surprised to see her talking to him. </p><p>“Meredith? What is it?”</p><p>“Can we talk?”</p><p>“Sure” </p><p>Meredith didn’t know where to stand so she decided to just lean on the door. </p><p>“I wanted to talk about what you might have heard yesterday…”</p><p>“Do you mean Hayes asking you out? Yeah, I heard everything”</p><p>“I miss you Andrew, I don’t…”</p><p>“What? You agreed to go out with him and now you’re saying that you miss me? I don’t understand you, Meredith.”</p><p>“I was going to go and cancel it. I can’t stop thinking about you since you sent me that text. I know you dumped me, but…”</p><p>“I didn’t dump you so you don’t have to miss me” Andrew said, laughing. </p><p>Meredith looked at Andrew, shocked. I can’t believe he’s laughing right now. Does he find the situation funny? Because I don’t. She felt anger building inside of her and she found herself wanting to leave the room as soon as possible. She looked at Andrew one last time and disappeared in the hallway. She was thinking, and thinking, and thinking. But suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t let things like that, she needed to go back in that room and tell him how she felt. Meredith headed back towards the room, almost running. When she arrived, she quickly entered the room and closed the door behind her. </p><p>“You know what? You don’t get to say that and laugh like you did. You’re the one who stopped things between us, break up or not. At first, I was mad and I couldn’t understand your choice. But then, with time, I think I started to get what you meant. And then, Maggie told me that you were regretting asking for this break so I thought “Maybe he finally realised that he really means something to me and that he really wants to be with me again” and I was determined to talk to you and make things right between us. But apparently, I was wrong.” Meredith said, with anger in her eyes.</p><p>Andrew couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Meredith had just told him that he meant a lot to her. All of a sudden, he realized that Meredith had been honest with him and he hadn’t believed her. How could he be so stupid? </p><p>“No, Meredith, you weren’t wrong. I was”</p><p>“Then, why would you tell me to go out with Hayes?”</p><p>“Because I am jealous, okay? When I saw you talking to him yesterday and telling him yes, I was eaten up by jealousy. I can’t think of you being with him when you should be with me.”</p><p>“Andrew…”</p><p>“No, look, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have behaved like that, and I know I shouldn’t have asked you to take some time in the first place. But, I don’t know, I wanted you to see me as your equal, as your partner but then I realized that it would never happen and… the most important thing was that we were happy together” Andrew said while looking at her, his voice low at the end of his speech.</p><p>“Andrew. I get why you would think that but you should have talked to me about it. We could have fixed things instead of losing time not being together”</p><p>“I know, and I’m sorry. I just didn’t know how to bring this up and I was afraid, I guess.”</p><p>Meredith stepped closer and took Andrew’s hand in hers. </p><p>“You don’t have to be afraid, Andrew. I love you, sincerely and deeply. I feel alive and young and happy when I’m with you. You woke up feelings in me that I thought were buried inside forever. You make me feel safe and loved and I don’t want to be without you ever again”</p><p>Andrew felt like he hadn’t breathed in ages. He felt so relieved to hear Meredith’s words and he couldn’t be happier. He cupped Meredith’s face in his hands and ran his finger along her cheeks. </p><p>“I love you too Meredith, so much that it hurts”</p><p>Meredith smiled and looked at Andrew, her eyes showing all the love she had for him. </p><p>“Well, are you going to kiss me?”</p><p>Andrew chuckled and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on Meredith’s lips. Soon, the kiss gained in intensity and Andrew sat down with Meredith on his laps. She had her arms locked around his neck and was playing with his hair. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Meredith broke the kiss. </p><p>“I have to get back to work”</p><p>“I know, me too… Can I see you tonight?” Andrew asked while holding her close.</p><p>“I’ll ask Maggie if she can look after the kids so we can have the evening to ourselves”</p><p>“Sounds perfect, I can’t wait” Andrew said smiling. </p><p>“Me too. I love you”</p><p>“I love you too. See you tonight”</p><p>“See you tonight” </p><p>And with that, Meredith kissed Andrew one last time and left the room. She couldn’t wait to spend the evening with him and start fresh. She was happy and she knew that her life would be better again because she was back in the arms of the man she loved.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading and if you have time, please comment, it would mean a lot to me ;) see you soon!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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